The book “Aliénés: Une histoire sociale de la folie au XIXe siècle” by Anatole Le Bras can interest h-madness readers.

Here is the abstract:

“Between 1838 and 1914, the number of patients in French lunatic asylums rose spectacularly, from 10,000 to 70,000. In this book, Anatole Le Bras retraces the biographical trajectories of mentally ill persons in 19th-century France, inside and outside of psychiatric institutions.

He maps the complex interactions between families, neighbours, the police, and local authorities that shaped the trajectories of the insane. Examining the relationships of the insane with the outside world, he highlights the way in which their ties with their relatives were modified, distended or maintained despite the passage of time. Looking beyond the walls, the book offers a glimpse of life after the asylum. It examines how the insane came to terms with their condition as inmates, or protested to regain their freedom.

Aliénés shows how mental illness interacted with categories such as gender and class, and thus takes madness as a prism through which to read 19th-century French society and its mutations”.

More information on the publisher’s website: https://www.cnrseditions.fr/catalogue/histoire/alienes/